Different Backgrounds, Different Politics Separate San Diego City Council District 7 Candidates

Speaker 1: 00:00 San Diego city council district seven cuts a horizontal path and compassing eight city neighborhoods with Linda Vista and mission Valley to the West and Tierra Santa and San Carlos to the East. It's presently represented by termed out council member, Scott Sherman, who is a Republican, the race for San Diego city council district seven is one of just two council races with a Democrat and Republican facing off KPBS reporter. Claire triglyceride joins us to tell us more about the race and Claire. Welcome. Thank you so much. There's a real choice here in this race with two different visions of the role of government. Tell us about the Republican in this race. No, Liza, I think it's actually one of two races in the entire city of San Diego. That's I'm a Democrat and a Republican. The rest are Democrat Democrat. So, uh, Nolisa has more of a hands off view of government. And one of the examples of this is in COVID regulations. He's the co owner of the restaurant chain dirty birds. And he says he, he was really deeply frustrated early in the pandemic when he had to close dining at his restaurant. So here's what he said Speaker 2: 01:13 Have operated the same guy. That doesn't mean we are operating now, but if during those critical two, three months where we were, we were shut down completely. A lot of small businesses folded, unfortunately permanently. Speaker 1: 01:24 Does he remain opposed to the COVID restrictions that are in place now? Well, he, he says, I mean, he, he does take COVID seriously. He actually said that he lost a friend to the virus, which is really unfortunate. And he says that he does like that he can do outdoor dining. Now that that's a big help and that he wished that he was able to do that earlier on, right. When restaurants first closed now Democrat role will come PO has a very different view of San Diego's COVID response. Can you tell us about him? Sure. So he says the restrictions that the County made were actually not strict enough. He's a prosecutor. He works in the city attorney's office. And so he takes a strong view of law enforcement. And so he likened, um, for example, writing citations for not wearing masks to jaywalking or when the city allowed, uh, electric scooters, he says there should have been enforcement really early on. And here's what he said. Thank you, Speaker 2: 02:20 County should have made sure that they were going to cite people who were violating the health orders early on, and I'm not talking drastic punitive measures, simply citations where people knew I am going to be paying a small fine if I violate this. Speaker 1: 02:36 No, because of the economic losses associated with the pandemic, the San Diego city council will most likely be facing an extremely tight budget next year. What do these two candidates have to say about possible cost? Cutting? Sure. So, um, we can start with Raul Cambio. Uh, he says he would definitely not cut salaries of city employees that's off the table for him, but he would actually want to bring in more employees, which he says could cut costs by removing paying for outside contractors. Um, and here's, here's what he said. Speaker 2: 03:10 Stead should be bringing in an engineer or surveyor to work for the city and be able to plan projects in house. Speaker 1: 03:18 And how does businessmen no Zaza say he would cut costs? Well, so he says that essential services like police and fire are off the table, but he would cut money on things like bike lanes. And I should know that's a little tricky because what he's talking about is actually more funded by the planning agency stand ag, not the city, but here's what he said Speaker 2: 03:39 Is the money that SANDAG and the city is spending on protected bike lanes. Um, uh, that SANDAG is spending $279 million on, um, with that, which that money should be going to fixing our streets and our roads. Speaker 1: 03:54 What are some of the other issues that are in play in this district race? Sure. So there's the question of, um, housing density. And one thing that I asked both candidates, just to get a sense of where they stood on that is whether they support allowing duplexes on single family zone lots. Um, and cam PO says that he does support that, um, that he's lived in other cities that have duplexes. And that works really well. Um, but he doesn't support quadplexes, which would be, I guess, uh, four houses on one single family zone lot. And then dosa says he does not support that on a citywide basis. He says, it depends on the neighborhood. They're both in support of a privacy ordinance that would require police and other city departments to get approval from a privacy commission before adopting any new surveillance technologies. And that kind of comes out of the streetlight cameras, um, that have made news recently. Speaker 1: 04:49 And then, um, there's a future measure to change the authority of the city attorney to kind of limit what the city attorney, the elected city attorney would be in charge of. And computer code does not support that. Um, not surprising cause he's works in that office and Sosa says he does support it. So those are some other local issues where you can really see the divisions between the two candidates in the primary camp PO came out on top of the field of three Democrats and the one Republican who was Soza, those democratic votes may likely some solidified behind Ken PO if he should win, what effect would his election have on the city council as a whole? Sure. I mean, so right now the seat is held by Scott Sherman. Who's a Republican. So if Kim PO does win, um, that will be an additional, a Democrat on the council. Speaker 1: 05:39 The Democrats already have a six to three veto proof majority. So picking up a seven seat or even an eighth, see if a Democrat wins in district five, it won't really impact the council in terms of being able to override a veto, which of course, we also are going to have a democratic mayor, but I think that it will maybe make for some more interesting dynamics as division show up between different types of Democrats who are on the city council. And I've been speaking with KPBS reporter, Claire Tresor Claire. Thank you very much. Thank you.